Preliminary photochemical studies of fluorene in various aqueous media

Abstract

The current study investigates the direct photochemical degradation of aqueous fluorene with the aid of a 125W polychromatic medium, pressure Hg lamp. The purpose was to test the effectiveness of the lamp in irradiation using fluorene spiked solution as substrate. A 700 ml volume of fluorene solution of 0.002 mg/l was irradiated batch-wise at 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 48 h. The amount of fluorene removal was studied for fluorene solutions prepared from , neutral (distilled water), acidic (by adjusting pH with hydrochloric acid, HCl), basic (by adjusting pH with sodium hydroxide, NaOH) and saline (addition of sodium chloride, NaCl) solutions and there was 95.95, 92.35, 96.65 and 97.15 % removal respectively after 48 h of irradiation. The major degradation product identified was fluorenone. The different media did not significantly affect the rate of fluorene degradation.